Coastal Carolina Tryon Palace Sponsors Austen Event: "Drinking with Jane"

	Scene from Historic Tryon Palace in New Bern, North Carolina where Richard Foss will give the address:  "Drinking with Jane"    "Drinking With Jane Austen"
Dates/Times:	Saturday, October 27, 2:00 p.m.
Location:	North Carolina History Center, Cullman Performance Hall
Description:	The world portrayed in Jane Austen's books was one of elaborate banquets and sumptuous parties, but the author provided very few details on just what was consumed at those events, and some of the items she did describe are unfamiliar to the modern reader. Food and beverage writer Richard Foss will supply some of the details Ms. Austen left out - what refreshments both alcoholic and non-intoxicating were imbibed by the various social classes in England of 1800, and how Ms. Austen indicated the character of her characters from the things they chose to drink, or to serve. This lecture was first given at the annual meeting of the Jane Austen Society of North America in Los Angeles in December of 2010. Richard Foss has been writing about food and drink professionally since 1986, when he started reviewing restaurants for the Los Angeles Reader newspaper. Since then he has written for over twenty different publications, including contributing articles to the Encyclopedia of World Food Cultures (Greenwood 2011). He is currently on the board of the Culinary Historians of Southern California, teaches a class called "500 Years of American Food" at Osher Institute/UCLA Extension, and has written a book on the history of rum that has been released by Reaktion Books. A sampling of beverages and period foods will be served following the program. Both alcoholic beverages and non-alcoholic beverages will be served. Attendees who wish to partake in any sampling of alcoholic beverages must be 21 years of age or older. Reservations Strongly Suggested- Call 252-639-3524 for Tickets
Admission:	$12 per adult, $10 per Council of Friends Member, $4 per child Reservations Strongly Suggested- Call 252-639-3524 for Tickets



New Book Examines Names Austen Gives Her Characters and Locations

 

 

If you’re anything like me, I’ll bet you have wondered how Jane Austen settled on the names for the characters and places in her novels.  Among others, these questions have crossed my mind :  Was “Lizzy” a popular nickname for headstrong girls at the time?  Did Austen have a natural antipathy toward the name Willoughby because she had a distasteful neighbor with that moniker? Did a young Jane Austen read about a Mr. Darcy in a newspaper article on a bright blue day when she was particularly happy?  I’m not a fiction writer myself, but I feel certain that as careful a novelist as she was, Jane Austen thought long and hard before finally selecting each character’s name in every one of her novels.  

Author Janine Barchas has carefully delved into the issue of the names of people and places that populate Austen’s novels in her newly published scholarly book from The John Hopkins University Press, Matters of Fact in Jane Austen: History, Location, and Celebrity.  Matter of Fact’s  book jacket states, “Barchas is the first scholar to conduct extensive research into the names and locations in Austen’s fiction by taking full advantage of the explosion of archival materials now available online.   According to Barchas, Austen plays confidently with the tension between truth and invention that characterizes the realist novel.  Of course, the argument that Austen deployed famous names presupposes an active celebrity culture during the Regency, a phenomenon recently accepted by scholars.  The names Austen pluck from history for her protagonists (Dashwood, Wentworth, Woodhouse, Tilney, Fitzwilliam and many more) were immensely famous in her day.  She seems to bank upon this familiarity for interpretive effect, often upending associations with comic intent.”

This is the same book that Susie Russenberger recommended to those present at the October meeting of the Middle TN JASNA regional group.  Matters of Fact in Jane Austen: History, Location, and Celebrity promises to be a scholarly book which may cross over to the popular non-fiction category for Austen lovers.  --Mildred Tilley

Beth Pattillo, Author of The Dashwood Sisters Tell All, to Speak at Oct. Meeting



 



Middle Tennessee JASNA members are in for a treat in October when author Beth Pattillo will be the speaker for the Fall Meeting.  Ms. Pattillo, author of numerous books, specifically a series of books which echo the plotlines, settings and characters of Jane Austen novels  (Jane Austen Ruined My Life, Mr. Darcy Broke My Heart and The Dashwood Sisters Tell All) , will speak to the group about her writing life and how Jane Austen has influenced her ideas about what makes a great novel.  Details about this meeting are as follows:

 

Date: Sunday, October 14



Time:  2:00-4:00 pm

Hostess:  Mildred Tilley

Location:  4413 Howell Place, Nashville

 

 

Be sure to bring light refreshments for high tea prior to the program